


A Suitably Dramatic Response

by amorremanet



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Community: hc_bingo, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Ficlet, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Gift Giving, Holidays, Presents, Teen Angst, Tumblr Ask Box Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-11
Updated: 2012-12-11
Packaged: 2017-11-20 22:11:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/590193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amorremanet/pseuds/amorremanet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>She's supposed to be good at keeping her head, at keeping her distance, at not letting her lies consume her, the way that they're doing now. The way that they've done since late September, when this whole thing started.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Suitably Dramatic Response

**Author's Note:**

  * For [leinthalexandra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/leinthalexandra/gifts).



> Prompts used here are, "pretending to be a couple" and, "holidays" for a tumblr meme, and, "surgery" for hc_bingo (in a non-literal take on the prompt).

Ruby wishes that she could just have some kind of surgery to fix this problem—but the sick thing is that even a goddamn heart transplant couldn't save her now. It probably couldn't, anyway, and she's not sure how much she wants it to. Maybe it could take away the sick, knife-twisting pain she gets in her chest whenever she looks at Anna, but in its own way, it's a good kind of pain. Except for how it makes her feel sick whenever they lace their fingers up together and Anna squeezes her hand as though Ruby's something precious—something loved—whenever this ruse gets the better of Ruby and she catches herself thinking that Anna might ever look at her in the ways that Ruby isn't supposed to want, not least because Anna's supposed to be her friend—the best friend she doesn't deserve.

Not least because this is just supposed to be a funny little prank—pretending to be a couple because Dean, Anna's ex and now her little brother's boyfriend, can't stand Ruby in the least bit, and it pisses him off to be reminded that other people have romantic desires and opinions that don't line up with the perfect world that he lets himself envision. Not least because Ruby's supposed to be so good at lying—people have known not to trust her since she spent all of first grade inventing stories about how her mother was friends with Scary Spice, but they still believe her for reasons she can't even begin to fathom—and because she's supposed to be good at keeping her head, at keeping her distance, at not letting her lies consume her, the way that they're doing now. The way that they've done since late September, when this whole thing started.

"If it really bothers you so much, you could just stop doing it." Meg looks up from her desk to glance over at where Ruby's flopped out and curled up in her big sister's beanbag chair, burying her face in Mister Fuzzles, Meg's dilapidated teddy bear. Meg sighs, rolls her eyes in that affectionate way of hers. Tucking a wave of dark hair behind her ear, she says, "Sweetie, you're a _Masters_ —we don't just sit around and wait for the things we want to come to us. We go out there, we club them over the heads, and we drag them back to our cave—pure and simple. And if we don't like something, then we tell it to fucking stop and we beat it with a stick until it fucking _does_."

"You're making us sound like cavemen, and I don't think it's really all that pure or simple?" Ruby points out—she huffs more than she means to, which she hates because it makes her sound petulant, like she isn't nearly seventeen and like she doesn't have a driver's license and a fake ID for getting into R-rated movies. "It's pretty much exactly the opposite of pure and simple—like what if I come clean with her, and she says no? What if she doesn't want to be my friend anymore after that? What if I lose her in every single possible way, all because I have a stupid crush on her? Then what?"

"Then you burn that bridge when you get to it," Meg says as though this ought to be obvious. "Metaphorically speaking, anyway. I wouldn't go around and set your main squeeze's house on fire if she rejects you. I mean, the Miltons have a _really_ nice house, am I right?"

"How about you're being the worst sister _ever_ , is what you are." Ruby should probably storm out, now—that'd be a suitably dramatic response, and maybe Meg would get the point that she's being really unhelpful—but instead, she just burrows further into the beanbag, clutches Mister Fuzzles to her chest.

"Kiddo, all I'm trying to say is that you and me? We're the best of anybody at that school. And if Princess Anna Milton would ever really disavow you as a friend over you crushing on her, then she never deserved you in the first place—you got it?"

Ruby really wishes that that compliment helped at all—but the only thing it makes her feel is small and easily ignored.

Besides everything else she's doing that's unhelpful, Meg's overlooking one crucial detail: how can Ruby stop pretending to be Anna's girlfriend when it's probably the closest she'll ever get to actually being Anna's girlfriend? How can she stop pretending when she's already bought Anna a Christmas present—because it would scandalize Dean in the entire, to think that Ruby and Anna are so into each other that they're trading Christmas presents, even though Ruby's Jewish. And because it's the closest thing that Ruby will ever get to actually giving Anna a Christmas present as her girlfriend—she has to take what little gifts she can from the world, right? Yes, exactly.

It's not even a particularly _good_ present, the necklace that she got for Anna. It's not tacky or ugly or anything like that—just a faux-silver chain with a little pewter angel medallion dangling on it—but it doesn't sparkle in the same way that Anna sparkles. The angel sort of looks like her, as much as a pewter angel medallion can emulate her high cheekbones and her fiery red hair, but the whole thing doesn't really capture her essence—it just made Ruby think about her, and that's why she picked it out. The chance to give it to her is why Ruby keeps up with the ruse, keeps leaning against Anna's shoulder in the student lounge or the cafeteria, and keeps kissing her cheeks or the corner of her mouth—perfectly chaste, of course, because they aren't really dating.

She hangs on until the last day of the semester—it won't be her last chance to give Anna her present, but it's the last one that makes sense. Ruby waits until Dean's watching them, then pulls the little box out of her leather jacket's pocket, slides it over to Anna's hand without a word. And she isn't sure what she expects—but it's definitely not for Anna to pull a folded up three-by-five card out of the box, at first, or to kiss Ruby full on the mouth.

It's absolutely not for Anna to drop the card down to the table, beam at her, and say, " _Yes_ —of course I will, just… you didn't have to get me a present or anything to ask me that, but… just. Yes. I would love that, Ruby."

Dumbfounded, Ruby blinks down at the card, and sees handwriting that she can't mistake as anyone's but Meg's, spelling out a deceptively simple question: _Will you be my girlfriend for real?_


End file.
